Does online food shopping boost dietary diversity? Application of an endogenous switching model with a count outcome variable

Wanglin Ma, Puneet Vatsa, Hongyun Zheng () and Yanzhi Guo ()
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Hongyun Zheng: Huazhong Agricultural University
Yanzhi Guo: Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs

Agricultural and Food Economics, 2022, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Abstract Increasingly, rural households in developing countries are shopping for food online, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. In parallel, dietary guidelines worldwide recommend eating a balanced and healthy diet. With this in mind, this study explores whether online food shopping boosts dietary diversity—defined as the number of distinct food groups consumed—among rural households in China. Because people choose to shop for food online, it is important to account for the self-selection bias inherent in online food shopping. Accordingly, we estimate the treatment effects of online food shopping on dietary diversity using the endogenous switching model with a count outcome variable. The results indicate that online food shopping increases dietary diversity by 7.34%. We also find that education, asset ownership, and knowing the government’s dietary guidelines are the main factors driving rural households’ decisions to shop for food online.

Keywords: Online food shopping; Dietary diversity; Endogenous switching; Rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C24 D12 E21 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1186/s40100-022-00239-2

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